Djelibeybi
| Djelibeybi | |
 | |
| Established | ca 7000 years ago |
| Motto | |
| Neighbours | Tsort and Ephebe |
| Geographical Features | The river djel |
| Population | closely packed |
| Size | 300 square miles. |
| Capital | (recently) New Djeli |
| Type of government | Monarchy (Queen Ptraci} |
| Notable Citizens | Dios |
| Imports | Plumbing fixtures, other technology |
| Exports | Crocodile leather goods, pickles and preserves |
| National Anthem | |
| Books | Pyramids, The Compleat Discworld Atlas |
The Kingdom of the Sun, The Old Kingdom of Djelibeybi:
At two miles wide and one hundred and fifty miles long this is a narrow country along the river Djel. It is almost completely submersed during the wet season. It is on the Klatchian coast of the Circle Sea. Djelibeybi has spent seven thousand years building pyramids for her monarchs, and has driven herself bankrupt. The two most recent monarchs have been more eager for international trading and technological advances like plumbing and bridges/viaducts, ideally with crenellations from which the formerly sacred river crocodiles may be shot at/have large stones dropped on them from a suitably great height. Pyramid-building has ceased, freeing the rich soil along the Djel for agricultural uses, which will probably boost the country's economy. After all, a lot of loose building stone is now available, most of it cut up into handy-to-use pre-squared blocks of masonry, so why waste it? Especially now it's going to be needed for all those bridges and aqueducts and things.
Under the benign auspices of the goddess Bast, Djelybeybi is also a country where cats are considered a sacred animal. Anyone who has encountered a Djelibeybian cat might actively prefer a sacred crocodile, as serious wounds can be inflicted by a hissing, spitting, flattened-eared, highly inbred, maniacal, feline. It remains an unresolved issue as to what the status of formerly sacred cats will be under the new regime, but thus far, nobody has suggested building high bridges over the litter tray so that large stones (of which there is a sudden sufficiency) may be dropped upon them from a great height. Perhaps the problem is that a nation built on sand is effectively one vast litter tray from a cat perspective; at least crocodiles are confined to the river, so providing for their culling is a side-benefit of recycling pyramids into bridges...
Though ostensibly a monarchy, Djelibeybi was in effect ruled by Dios, the never-aging high priest to all of Djelibeybi's monarchs who interprets the laws and is as powerful as any other Grand Vizier, until he was sent back in time (his life is a never-ending time loop) in Pyramids.
Djelibeybi used to be something of an empire thousands of years ago. After the aforesaid bankruptcy, Djelibeybi hasn't been conquered by her strong neighbors Tsort and Ephebe (one on each side of the long, narrow country) because if one conquered Djelibeybi, the border would be immediately next to the other strong neighbor, and there would be more trouble.
After Dios is removed from the loop, or rather, Djelibeybi is removed from the loop in time within which Dios remains inextricably caught up, the country is now on the road to financial solvency and new prosperity under the guiding hand of Queen Ptraci I, a former handmaid who has come into her own since her parentage was revealed, and who has some good ideas for the future.
Main setting for the novel Pyramids. Djelibeybi also is among the forces that set out to defeat Omnia once and for all, in Small Gods. The name literally translates to "Child of Djel". According to the local calendar, which is likely to differ from the consensus calendar, the events of Pyramids took place in the Century of the Cobra.
Deities
An incomplete list of the known gods of Djelibeybi:
Supreme Gods
The Djelibeybatian pantheon has nine Supreme Gods who all appear to be equally Supreme, including:
Supreme Gods of the Afterlife
There are also at least four Supreme Gods of the Djelibeybatian version of the afterlife
Other Gods
- Bast - God of cats
- Bunu - God of goats
- Cephnet - A sun God
- Cephut - God of cutlery
- Fhez - God of the lower Djel
- Gil - Another sun god
- Hat - God of unexpected guests
- Khefin - God of gateways
- Nept - Goddess of the sky
- Nesh - A sun Goddess
- Sarduk - Goddess of caves
- Sessifret - Goddess of the afternoon
- Teg - God of agriculture
- Thrrp - Sun god and Charioteer of the Sun
- Tzut - God of the upper Djel
- What - Goddess of the Sky
- Vut - God of the evening
- Yay - Another sun god
Annotations
- Djelibeybi is strongly based on Ancient Egypt. A country located by a great river with pyramids, a multitude of gods, ruled by a god-king known as a Pharaoh, and who prepare their dead for the afterlife using mummification rituals.
- The name Djelibeybi is a reference to jelly babies, a pun which according to Terry Pratchett many readers seem to have missed. It may have been inspired by the djellaba, a traditional Arabic garment native to the Maghreb, and/or the jellabiya which is a similar outfit worn around the Persian Gulf. (See also the fishing from the same stream page for another similar pun in Tintin.)
- Djelibeybi is a civilisation founded on the recirculation and manipulation of Time, so it the name may also be inspired by a certain Time Lord...the Doctor of British television institution Doctor Who. At the height of his 1970s fame, the Doctor (then played by Tom Baker) frequently offered a favourite sweet to friend and foe alike to disarm them. You guessed it: a jelly baby.
- Hence also the appearance of the otherwise-unknown Hersheba, a throw-in for the American trade where jelly babies aren't known, but Hershey Bars are.